BEIJING,
August 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Authorities in
China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang region have detained an Uighur woman
and 37 of her students, some as young as seven, for studying the Noble
Qur’an, a rights group said Monday, August 15.
Aminan
Momixi, 56, was teaching the Qur’an to the students, aged between
seven and 20, at her home on August 1 when police burst in and
arrested her, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing the
German-based World Uighur Congress.
Her
students, most of whom were primary and secondary school pupils, were
also arrested and some remain in detention, it said.
Police
confiscated 23 copies of the Qur’an, 56 textbooks on the holy book,
a hand-written manuscript and other religious materials, the
organisation added.
Uighurs
are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million whose traditional
homeland lies in the oil-rich Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in
northwestern China.
Xinjiang
has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of
crackdowns by Chinese authorities, who have been accused by rights
groups of religious repression against Uighurs in the name of
counter-terrorism efforts.
“Illegal”
Momixi
was accused of "illegally possessing religious materials and
subversive historical information," the congress said, adding
that she had been denied access to a lawyer.
A
police officer confirmed the detentions.
"This
is our internal issue, we cannot disclose the reason," she said.
China
bans all religious activities outside state control.
The
congress' spokesman Dilxat Raxit said parents just wanted their
children to learn moral values which the Qur’an taught them.
"They
just want their children to learn the Qur’an, the most basic
religious knowledge, during the summer holiday," he told AFP.
He
added that some children had been released after parents paid fines of
between 7,000 and 10,000 yuan (863 and 1,233 dollars).
"Some
parents simply can't afford it. They live in the countryside and have
to sell their cows and yaks to get their children out," he
stressed.
The
spokesman was not aware how many children were still detained.
In
a 114-page report released in April, Human Rights Watch said Chinese
policy in Xinjiang "denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by
extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression".
Uighur
rights activists have accused the US administration, which often brags
about human rights, of turning a blind eye to China’s crackdown on
the Muslim Uighur minority.
